"The Endowment" Preface to set of 10 Characteristics

Preface to set of 10 Characteristics: The ministers of the Lord do well to think about this day of endowment, for even as He has disclosed to one of His servants concerning this House of the Lord--"You have not even begun to dream of that which I the Lord had in mind in the erection of the Temple, things which have as yet been but slightly realized, but in the years of the future will be realized, and when 'they' are, their effect and influence shall be felt over the entire world." Characteristic No. 1: There shall be an endowment of spiritually won knowledge. In order that you may understand, consider the, to you, amazing 'results' that have come to your so-called scientific world from the many institutions of research. In them keen minded men, inspired by the scientific advancement of this your day, seek to discover some of the secrets of the great Creator, hidden in the works of His creation. They have discovered many of these secrets because they have thus sought. Do you suppose your great Father is not aware of the value of this method of extending the horizon of understanding? Behold, He understands far beyond your willingness to receive or or take part, or rise up to, or use. These institutions of research labor very largely under the light of their own intellects and minds, and your civilization could not carry on without them. But, behold, the wisdom of the Lord-- He would gather you together in His School of His Prophets. He would have you develop and use your keen minds, too, but He offers you spiritual and mental illumination, an illumination that shines out and radiates out from His very presence in Highest Heaven. He offers to guide you and open up boundless resources of intelligence and wisdom, such as scientific researchers can never have. He offers you a spirit-graced institution of inspired research. Who among you can delineate all that can thus arise out of this His great institution for the discovery of truth, even His long delayed School of the Prophets. Only out of this great school, and the endowment to which it ministers and leads, can there come power to fully envision and to establish Zion. Only out of it can come the great works to be done that shall usher in the world's Golden Age, the Millennium. The age of scientific research and advancement shall be climaxed by that which the Lord shall set up, and in which His servants shall take part. In the great work of the Eternal, God is your Father in a deeper sense than you know. Jesus Christ is your elder brother. All ye He would have as sons and brothers and friends. The great Father's highest method of procedure in His communion, His uplifting, His guiding, His leadership of His sons and friends, who are the servants of His great purpose, is not that there shall be one high and lifted up to whom all shall abjectly give heed. Rather, it is a noble association of deeply consecrated, inspired and gifted minds, humble to know the truth, anxious to glorify His high purpose and name, and deeply concerned, as is He, with the achievement of this His high purpose for life. The Lord your God gave to Isaiah one of the finest of prophetic insights-- Come, let us reason together, for though your sins be as scarlet, if you will come close to the great Father so that He may reason with you and you talk to Him, then shall your personalities become white as the driven snow; though your sins be like crimson, through this exalted association with Him, ye shall become as the finest and whitest wool. How can such exalted association and experience be possible you say, who are accustomed so largely to ways of other churches, and who trust so greatly in that which may be attained thru education and your own wisdom? Now, lest any should be tempted to continue thinking that human scholarship and human wisdom can very largely suffice for your needs as ministers of the Most High, I call you to witness that the great spiritual leaders whom God has called to do a great work for Him have all been men of such exalted association and experience. Enoch, Moses, the prophets of Israel, the first apostles, Nephi, the twelve disciples of ancient America, Moroni, Joseph of the latter day-- Name one who could do his work until the Lord, with high spiritual experience, qualified and endowed him. How can you, in this hour and this day, when the great battle of the Lord needs to be fought, even in this closing day when the powers of darkness shall increasingly rage, how can you do your work and how can you even survive, unless you too, shall stand in the high places of the Lord, unless you too, shall come up unto the mountain of the Lord's house? Behold, a goodly part of the endowment experience that thus is before you, will be in this area of what you can discover, understand, and become able to use, as, under the urgency of a high purpose, and humbly before the Eternal Father, you shall earnestly, under His special gifts of the Spirit, seek to qualify yourselves. Is there not a saying among you that "knowledge is power"? If this be true in ordinary fields of human understanding, how much more will it be true when the powers of heaven work with you in marvelous ways? Is it not written in the scriptures of these last days that you should seek learning by study and also by faith? Is there not also written therein this admonition-- "Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God"? Is there not also plainly set forth in this same portion of His word, even in the twenty-first paragraph, many special fields of needed knowledge that are particularly adapted to this method of widening intellectual and spiritual horizons? There are, as well, many other areas of knowledge besides these that must likewise be entered into as you shall seek to increase your powers of understanding and intellectual perception. Nevertheless, except the Lord be in this house, they labor in vain who build it, for the Lord by His Spirit will give the gifts of discernment, of evaluation, of illumination, and only under His blessing can you come to a unity of understanding and of faith. This is why no ordinary school, or movement, or institution of research, modeled upon the institutions of men, can ever suffice. This aspect of the endowment--power thru spiritually-won knowledge-- must go on and on and on. Not only must whatever is good among theories, or discoveries, or knowledge of men, or books, or libraries, or sciences-- not only ought these to be sought out, but all ye who are sons of the Father of Light must, as the years shall roll on, merging after a time of great tribulation and judgment into the blessed years of the millennium-- you must go on and on and on, even far beyond the limits of the present. Again, has not that John, who tarried, written that the glory and the honor of the nations shall be brought into the Holy City, and be used delightfully by the holy people? Is it also written that the glory of God is intelligence. More and more must that not also be your glory? Particularly an intelligence that is deeply spiritual? Now, you ask, what are ways by which you may push forward into this great movement of spiritualized research? How shall you come into this area of empowering, and endowing experience that shall become of immense importance? How shall you enter into this meeting of the mind of the Lord with the mind of His noble-hearted servants and ministers? Surely, as you, individually, or as any who have the opportunities of leadership, think and pray about these things, the loving Father will give you wisdom and open your minds to an increasingly larger vision.